These guys are not mucking around, and whether we care to admit it or not, they are fighting for a piece of the same cake boxing is. Talk about fight club by Jamie Pandaram - smh - Feb 26th 2011 AUSTRALIA'S top sporting officials will be headhunted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship when they open an office in Sydney as early as this year, although some have already made sly inquiries. Having established bases in Las Vegas, London, Beijing and Toronto, executives from the $US2 billion mixed martial arts organisation view Australia as the next burgeoning market for their operations and are seeking an administrator who understands the local sporting culture. The UFC has a history for poaching bright administrators for their international offices, signing the head of NBA Asia, Mark Fischer, as their chief in Beijing and Tom Wright, the former commissioner of the Canadian Football League, to run the Toronto office. ''When we open an office in Sydney, those are the sorts of people we will be looking for, but they are already reaching out to us,'' said UFC director of international development, Marshall Zelaznik, refusing to name them. ''They are saying, 'When you open an office here call me'. And those are from some of the top sports in Australia. It is no longer the passionate fan who wants to work for us, these are highly experienced executives, people who think they can be challenged, guys who are gainfully employed. ''Australia has got to be the best pound-for-pound market for us.'' The dramatic rise of the UFC, a company purchased for $US2 million by brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta a decade ago, is a modern day marvel. No sport in history has experienced such rapid growth, yet they are still outlawed in New York and Melbourne, and are in the midst of a legal battle in Germany. Many consider it to be barbaric, with former US senator John McCain's assertion that it was equivalent to ''human cockfighting'' still ringing loudly in the ears of UFC owners and fans. There has never been a case of death or paralysis in the UFC - broken bones the worst injury sustained - but there remains detestation over its perceived sanctioning of free-for-all street fight in an inhumane cage. The tireless PR campaigning of the UFC executives, fighters and supporters will never convince some but the tide is slowly turning. Many boxing fans have become fed up and confused with the numerous governing bodies that have their own champions who duck each other, sports fans appreciate the quality of the show, and recent supporters have been swept up in the mania. At its core the UFC is a business with a popular product, capitalising on tremendous demand and the charisma of president Dana White, who has a remarkable ability to connect with and sell to their key demographic - 18- to 34-year-old males. Their success lies not in society's thirst for blood but in their deliverance of bouts - there is not a fight yet the fans have demanded that hasn't been made, unlike the farcical situation surrounding boxing's biggest stars Floyd Mayweather jnr and Manny Pacquiao - and unrestrained approach. ''The thing we're really good at is being open-minded with opportunities, not being regimented with what we do, we're a little bit ad-hoc,'' Zelaznik said. ''For instance, we find there is always high demand for our preliminary fights [before the pay-per-view fights begin], and we have been pretty good at getting the prelims for the last few cards in, but we recently had a big clamouring for some of our Asian fighters and we didn't really have space with our TV partners. ''Someone said, 'Why don't we put them on Facebook?' Now most sporting organisations, the thought of streaming something over social media would be stuck in committee forever. ''That idea came up in a meeting and 24 hours later we arranged it, announced it, and we had nearly 200,000 people watching that. We're not stuck with bureaucratic tradition and history, we're extremely nimble. ''We are building a sport - when has that happened in anyone's life who is still alive? Who says 'I remember when automobile racing was invented', or when Aussie rules was invented? The sport of MMA is starting now. The legacy of what we want this sport to be in 120 years from now, is happening now. ''Our fighters are the earliest cricketers, American footballers and NBA players, and they do have a sense that this is how history will regard them.'' Queenslander Kyle Noke is one. The former bodyguard of Steve Irwin, Noke gave up a promising rugby league career in favour of MMA success, and believes the rise of more Australian stars is inevitable. ''I think we have a lot of talent here, the hardest thing is we're so far away from the US,'' Noke said. ''But when I first started fighting, nobody knew what it was Now there is a real understanding of what this is.'' This weekend's event will be attended by radio presenter Jackie O and British rapper Dizzee Rascal, while Demi Moore and Tom Hanks have attended in the US. The show sold out in hours, like last year's first Australian event in the same arena. The company is negotiating a TV deal with Nine's GO! channel, which would add to its presence on Fuel TV, One HD and Main Event here. The detractors will remain, but like their champions, the UFC refuses to tap out. ''If it was easy everyone would be doing it,'' said Zelaznik, a former lawyer and television executive. ''If they are reasonably minded and can have well-formed opinions, I want to be talking to them. We want to open the dialogue. ''Reasonable minds can disagree, it is the unreasonable minds I don't have time for.''
They sign with UFC and can fight for no one else and get the money they are given. They make Don King look like a choir boy. the fighters should be some of the highest payed athletes considering they are fighting for a $2billion company.remember ufc is not a sport they are a company. spoke to people who went to the last one and asked them if they could see through the cage and they replied that it was hard to see but they watched the screens anyway.lol they paid for tickets,accommodation and airfares to watch something they could not see. to each to his own.
maybe this is why the purses are small? "The company carries $450 million in debt based on loans taken out to fund company growth. There is a $25 million credit facility due in 2012, and a $425 million loan due in 2015." This is a direct quote from the article, no where does that say "assumption", "estimate" or "guess". Why do you believe it is not factual please? Some more info for you: Some fans might have heard that the UFC (AKA Zuffa, LLC) took out a $325 million loan not too long ago: DETAILS OF ZUFFA LOAN. In June 2007 Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the UFC, borrowed $325 million through a Senior Secured Credit Facilities Term Loan due 6/18/15. This debt instrument was placed with Oppenheimer Funds, Franklin Templeton Funds, Fidelity Funds and others. Evidently the Fertittas spent most of the proceeds on the purchase of Pride and on a dividend for themselves and Dana White. The provisions of the loan are as follows: The loan is a pledge of the entire Zuffa assets and revenues, including the UFC, and a stated amount of revenue must come from sponsorships. The new UFC Xyience contract, which newly-crowned co-CEOs Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford negotiated with John Mulkey, the CFO of Zuffa LLC, calls for $9 million the first year, $11 million the second year and $12.14 million the third year. And Xyience will reportedly not be in the center of the mat after March. In other words: The Fertitta funding and new UFC contract with Xyience appears to be a sham for the auditors of Zuffa and the UFC to cover-up the fact that a key covenant in their $325 million loan was in breach. They were allowed to obtain this loan by representing the sponsors they have are all above board, successful companies. Once Zuffa had secured and collected on their own loan, Fertitta Enterprises and a few other outside investors gave Xyience financing in a deal that shareholders were told would directly benefit the company and provide operating funds for an expansion of the brand. The alternative would be to bankrupt the company. The scare tactic worked. The new investment group now plans to do what they said they were trying to avoid all along, all in order to truly capitalize for themselves on their investment. Instead of providing bridge financing for an IPO of Xyience stock (as some investors were told the Fertitta funding would facilitate) or funds to pay off a host of other vendor fees Xyience has accrued, the Fertitta loan barely made a dent in Xyience's extensive debt. Fertitta Enterprises entered into financing Xyience primarily to pay off the company's UFC debt. Almost immediately after the Fertitta money came in, Xyience reportedly forked out over $6.5 million in past due sponsorship fees that had been accrued by Xyience and were owed to the UFC. The company also extended their UFC sponsorship contract right after the Fertitta Enterprises deal became official. The Fertittas and a few other investors basically funded a company on the verge of bankruptcy to provide capital for themselves. So, the Fertittas and a few friends paid the debts owed to the UFC by Xyience while also propping Xyience up as a valid, viable company. Any way you slice it, it's a scam perpetrated by misdirection and manipulation.
I enjoy watching it occassionally but it will only take a serious or fatal injury in the UFC PPV card's and the sport will be set back years, especially as UFC have a monopoly on the sport. My local has been putting on the last couple of cards at the pub and the demographic is a lot different to boxing. The age is about 19-20yrs and they look like they are following the latest fad going around........ there were 10 of them in one group yesterday and they were all drinking soft drink at the pub with their UFC hats on atsch
It got more positive press through both the Telegraph and SMH on both Friday and Saturday, I'm talking full double page spreads, far more than boxing receives. And no, I'm not a fan of UFC, MMA, etc.
Interesting observation regarding the UFC fans Beaver. Largely it is a different crowd, but in my mind both sports are still rivals in the market-place. If it weren't for the advent of UFC those 10 young guys would likely have become boxing fans. I'm concerned that many of the potential next generation of boxing fans are finding other things to interest them.
MMA's great, same as boxing, just a different set of rules. They're both combat sports, and both can happily live together IMO. Not sure what homos or toilet floaters have to do with a combat sport, but if you don't like it, don't watch it. Pretty simple really.
http://www.badlefthook.com/2009/10/15/1086148/bernard-hopkins-reminds-you-hes "Everybody is different. I don't want to watch two grown men wrestling with panties on. I'm from the hood, we don't play that. To me, I'm not buying a ticket to watch two grown men with panties on, sweating, nuts in their face. That's not me. To compare that to boxing is ludicrous. It's a porno. It's an entertainment porno. I'm not wrestling a guy with panties on and his nuts in my face, and they call that a sport. "I'm not criticizing people for what kind of entertainment they like. I think most of those people have chains and masks in their closets. There is something out there for everybody. I can understand if 90% of women were going to those things but I can't understand a grown man sitting there with a couple of guys watching two grown men with panties on, sweating. That's just my opinion. It's not a good look." :yep
Mate i enjoy a few of the fights here and there but overall it's not on par with Boxing. For you to say you enjoy it better means you should be in the MMA section and not here.
